Lost Secrets
by RainingSunshineEverywhere
Summary: The town of ChewandSwallow is being brought down and the townsfolk are disappearing. Not to mention the WMRs are beginning and Flint, Brent and Sam will have to participate in them in order to save their town. Or else.
1. Chapter 1: This is our town

**A/N: Yay! I was waiting a long time to finally post this and here it is. A fresh new CWACOM fanfic that has nothing to do with my other CWACOM fanfics. I first want to thank Qille for agreeing to Beta-read this fanfic (thank you!). And I want to thank everyone who will be reading this fanfic (thanks guys!) Now I just want to say I hope to make this one as good as the others and I really hope everyone likes it! Read, review and tell me how you like it so far =)**

**PART 1**

_**17 years ago… 1992…**_

The sky was storming up.

The clouds were swallowing up the sky into darkness. Everything was getting dark as night and even the air was becoming like piercing cold needles on exposed skin. The coldness that stung the air was soon overpowered by the howling wind that ripped along like a beast. The wind tore at trees and blew away anything as light as a garbage can standing on the street.

The ocean itself was a raging monster that lapped at the shore and overflowed the chaotic streets. Its teal waters clawed at the screaming people; who really didn't know where the storm had come from. But everyone was going insane.

These were the citizens of Swallow Falls. They had lived near the ocean for the longest time, and never had it acted up like this before.

Some of the people running around were quite known to many. There was Tim Lockwood; who was running home to his wife and son, who was only 5 years old at the time. There was Grace McHale; who was the mother of Brent. Her husband was running around somewhere else. He was the Mayor of the town back then and was trying to reassure people that everything was going to be okay.

There was a man named Joe Towne; who kept crying out 'I had a dream like this once!'

Some short Italian 23 year old guy (who had moved into the town from Italy) was screaming that the ocean water was ruining his perfect hair.

Something must have stirred up in the sky, because it began to pour. Rain was coming down quick and was drenching the citizens even more. It was causing a flood to splash around in the streets, as the ocean water mixed with the rain water. Those who couldn't get shelter were standing atop cars or scrambling up streetlamps.

"Mom!" came a child's howl through the rain. It was a boy with long blond hair and wide blue-green eyes. Holding his hand was a girl at least a year younger than him. She must have been the boy's sister. The water was up to her chest and up to the boy's waist.

"MOM!" the boy shouted through the rain and his sister was now beginning to cry. There was no sound of their mother. He knew she was around. He had seen her earlier.

The water was rushing around quicker and by now people had no way out. The boy was lifted up and saved from the water. Before his sister could have been saved, the water swept her away.

After the flood, there was no sign of the boy's parents. They had just vanished. Other than them, the boy's sister had gone too. No one knew what happened to them. The boy was left to live with the 23 year old Italian.

Unfortunately, seven years later in 1999, another terrible storm similar to the one in 1992 hit Swallow Falls. More people vanished and it was a mystery to where they ended up.

Other mysterious things began to happen in Swallow Falls after that and no one knew what or who caused them. There was also someone or something that was keeping the town upright and out of trouble. And this defiantly wasn't the Mayor's doings. He only caused the trouble.

xxx

If you packed your bags now and said you were headed over to ChewandSwallow, people would just shake their heads at you. Why? Well, The Great Food Storm that passed across the world happened a month ago. The whole world hated ChewandSwallow for it and the tourist rate flew downward by a lot for the little town.

The cleanup that followed after was long and tedious. Citizens walked around with garbage bags and giant black government helicopters hovered over the town and collected the food in giant nets. No one really knew where they were taking the food or what would happen to it.

But what bothered the citizens of ChewandSwallow was how much money they had to pay those people who had come to help clean up the food. Not only did they have to pay for that, but the town had gone pretty short on money after a lot of money went into building Sardine Land. They still had to pay back the company that was hired to build it. Plus when money was loaned from the bank to build ChewandSwallow, it had never been paid back.

The total amount of money they had to pay back was one that ended with a couple of zeros at the end. The number was up in the high millions. This scared the citizens of ChewandSwallow. They would never be able to pay back a sum like that.

They were all ready to point fingers at Mayor Shelbourne. He was the one who used up all the money. Except he wasn't there to do anything. He couldn't pay anything back. Why? He was dead. It was said he had drowned out at sea.

So now the town was in serious trouble.

The only good thing that had come out of the Great Food Incident was that they didn't have to eat sardines anymore. Restaurants, cafés and supermarkets popped up. Crops were grown from seeds taken from the giant food. With the help of Flint Lockwood, the crops grew to normal sizes.

No food was shipped in from the states or other countries. Everything was made and grown in ChewandSwallow.

Right now at 7:15 am, inside the town's supermarket, Flint Lockwood and Brent McHale were riding shopping carts down the empty aisles. They would start at the end of the aisle and after a running start, jump into the carts as quick as possible and speed down the aisle. At the end they'd crash into either the wall or some shelf.

Brent McHale worked at the supermarket. He usually came in at 7:00 am to unlock the doors. Then at 7:30, Tim Lockwood; who was the supermarket's manager, would come in. The actual place opened at 8:00.

This morning, Brent and Flint decided to go shopping cart racing. And the only time they could do that was if they got there really early in the morning

"Flint! Watch this!" Brent called to Flint.

Flint Lockwood was the genius of the town. He had crazy spiked brown hair and purplish-blue eyes. He was pretty skinny for his age compared to Brent, but was still strong enough to lift something as heavy as a car engine.

Other than his looks, he was extremely clever and had a big imagination. With both combined he invented the zaniest inventions, such as Spray-On-Shoes, Ratbirds, a Flying Car and the FLDSMDFR. He was the inventor of the town and was always seen wearing his most prized possession: his white lab coat.

Brent McHale had gelled up blonde hair and wide blue-green eyes. He used to be the town's star when the Baby Brent's Sardine Company was still around.

Brent used to live with Mayor Shelbourne, and that turned him into a pretty malicious person. Now that Shelbourne was dead, Brent had transformed into this whole new person.

The Sardine Company had shut down and now he was just a normal citizen. But he still wore his light blue tracksuit, which he had worn back in the days of his stardom. Recently he was seen walking around in a chicken suit. When the Ratbirds had eaten away the upper half, he finally realized he had to get some clothes.

"Look out for the—" Flint began to cry out, but it was too late. Brent smashed into a canned corn pyramid and cans flew everywhere.

Sitting in the cart, Brent covered his head as the cans rained down on top of him and filled the cart. Once silence filled the place, he lifted his blonde head and looked around with wide eyes.

"Uh oh…" he replied rather quietly and glanced at Flint.

Flint laughed and watched Brent try to get out of the shopping cart, but it flipped over and Brent face-planted the floor with a thud.

When Brent lifted his face, Flint laughed louder.

Usually, Flint didn't hang out with Brent or do crazy things like go shopping cart aisle racing. But it was Brent trying to get Flint to stop worrying about Sam.

Sam had to leave for New York the very next day after the Great Food Incident because they were calling her back to the Weather News Network. At first she thought about not going back and just getting a job in ChewandSwallow, but the WNN was giving her a big project to work on and an even bigger role.

_"I'll come to visit, Flint," Sam said in a quiet voice, "I promise."_

_The two sat on top of a giant marshmallow as night fell over the tired town. Tonight the sky was clear without any heated purple clouds clashing and roaring about. A fresh blanket of stars sighed with relief as they danced across the sky and the moon glowed a beautiful gentle white glow._

"_I-I hope so." Flint nodded slowly._

_After the kiss near the docks, he would blush every time he looked over at Sam. She would just smile warmly. The good thing that came out of that kiss was that she was much nicer to him and the two weren't so awkward around each other._

"_And Flint, you will NOT become all miserable and upset when I leave. I'll make sure Brent takes care of that." She smiled at him._

_Flint had just sighed. He already felt just like that._

_Just when he got himself a girlfriend, she was already heading back. He wished she could just stay a few more days. Just a few._

_Slowly, he reached out and took her hand. It was soft and a little too warm. He could feel the sweat covering it in a thin layer. But he didn't care. All he wanted to hold her hand for now._

_When he turned to glance at her to see her expression, she leaned in and gently kissed him on the lips. A slow blush spread across his face and he smiled a bit._

"_You promise?" Sam asked in a faint whisper._

"_I promise." He answered and kissed her back, still blushing._

"Flint!"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Flint looked down at Brent; who was climbing out of the shopping cart. As soon as Brent stumbled to his feet he pressed his finger to his lips and motioned for Flint to listen. Freezing, Flint cupped his hand at his ear and listened closely.

A soft whistle was coming from outside and both of them exchanged horrified expressions. It was Tim. He had come early.

Brent told Flint to clean up the scattered cans, while he jogged outside to distract Tim. Nodding, Flint began to catch cans that were trying to roll away down the aisle. One rolled under a shelf and Flint decided to ignore that one. He picked up the motionless ones and ran back to the display platform to stack them into a pyramid.

He didn't seem to have enough time, because he heard both Brent and Tim enter the store.

"Well I _hope_ nothing was knocked over!" Brent exclaimed in a loud voice and Flint knew that was for him.

The cans would take forever to stack, so he just dumped them all into the shopping cart and then drove the shopping cart away and to the back of the store, where Brent could hopefully deal with them later.

Next, Flint ran around the store to the front doors. He made sure his dad didn't see him. Really, Tim thought Flint was still sound asleep up in his lab.

But Brent did. He turned around and glanced briefly at Flint, before continuing his conversation with Tim.

Flint ran out, hoping that Steve didn't do anything in his lab while he was gone. Because there was a stash of gummy bears hidden, that Flint only promised to use for emergency use. Steve might have sniffed that out…

_That could wait._ Flint sighed to himself and slipped his hands into his pockets.

The streets of ChewandSwallow were very quiet so early in the morning. Everyone was either sleeping away or some of the older residents were up and already doing things around their houses. Not even the Ratbirds stirred from where they dozed on the rooftops of the buildings down Main Street.

They were the roosters of the town. They were the ones who served as alarm clocks for some people. And it wasn't the sun that made them rouse from their sleep. It was the old clock tower's loud bell that rang every morning only at 8 o'clock. Long ago, when the tower was built atop City Hall, it would ring every hour. Something went wrong and no one ever bothered to fix it.

Flint decided to take a walk down Main Street and enjoy the emptiness.

The morning air was thin and filled with the salty smell of the ocean. Oh the ocean. Flint thought it was beautiful how ChewandSwallow was surrounded by water. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.

Somewhere a seagull squawked in the distance and after came the crashing of small waves that rolled onto the shore, or splashed against the dock's poles. These sounds tiptoed into his ears and sang out on the inside of him.

Ahead, Flint looked up to see City Hall. It was an old white building that needed a few repairs on the inside. Sadly, no wanted to fix it up. Just like the clock tower.

_With this keeping up, soon no one will even care for the town. Things will stay broken and kicked back, only to be forgotten. We need to do something. Fix up the town. Pay up for everything unpaid. Find and elect a good Mayor and most importantly change the town's name back to Swallow Falls._Flint thought and looked up at the gray sky.

He smiled to himself when he pictured the town looking all beautiful and clean again.

xxx

"We _must_ do something about all the problems this town is being pushed into!" a woman wearing a periwinkle business suit replied sternly. Her grayish-blue eyes scanned the small group before her.

"Ugh, you tell us that _every single day._ I think the point got across by now," a young man said, rolling his eyes from where he sat in a swivel chair. He was tired and could barely keep his eyes open.

The woman closed her eyes for a second and took in a deep breath. Opening them, she looked up at the other man and woman, who sat in the room. Both were alert and seemed to be listening to her. Kinda. The man was watching a fly buzz around the room. The woman had her full attention on her, which was good.

"I know, but this time I'm serious. Mayor Remo Shelbourne has disappeared and the town is without a Mayor." The woman in the business suit shivered at the name.

"Uh, he's dead," the man sitting in the swivel chair snorted and spun around in a circle.

"How the hell do you know?" the woman who had been paying attention gasped.

"Psh, isn't it obvious? Well it doesn't matter now. The bastard drowned and now we can party. I'll get the beer and food." The man jumped to his feet and, yawning, stumbled out of the room. He already seemed to be slightly drunk.

The woman in the business suit sucked in her breath and was about to call after the man who just left, but stopped herself and went over to some file cabinets in the corner. She pulled a small silver key out of her pocket and stuck it in the cabinet's lock. With a loud click, the cabinet shuffled open.

Inside were files on every single person in ChewandSwallow dating all the way back to when the town was first founded. The woman pulled out a couple of folders and came back to the table. The man who had left came back with a cooler and a box of saltine crackers. He sat between the other man and woman.

Opening the cooler, he pulled out a cold beer and popped it open. Taking a long swing, he turned to glance at the man and woman sitting on either side of him.

"You want one?" The man stuffed his hand into the cooler and pulled out a beer. He offered it to the woman. She pushed his hand away, disgusted.

"I'll take it!" the other man grinned and snatched the beer from the other man's hand.

"Will you two STOP IT? Listen up, or I'll kick you two out!" the woman in the business suit snapped from where she across from them.

She opened the first folder and handed it to the woman sitting across from her. Another folder she handed to the two men. Once the folders were opened, everyone leaned in to see who they were reading about.

The woman; who got the first folder, had gotten Mayor Shelbourne's folder. The two men had opened up Flint Lockwood's folder.

"Okay, were any of Flint's relatives ever town Mayors? I'm thinking of putting Flint on the job." The woman in the business suit asked the two men.

"Flint's great-grandfather was a Mayor. Then after him came some dude, whose name is covered in white-out. After _him_ came that brutal election where Marco McHale, Tim Lockwood and Remo Shelbourne tried running for Mayor. Of course Remo won." One of the men replied and took a long sip from his beer can.

The woman in the business suit scratched her head and then looked over at the other woman, reading Mayor Shelbourne's folder. She asked her if he had any relatives, who were ever leaders of the town.

"Actually no." the woman furrowed her eyebrows.  
>"Does he have any kids? A wife, perhaps?" the woman in the business suit asked.<p>

"Nope. He's single and no kids. I'm actually not surprised. Oh wait… he was a foster father to Brent McHale and some girl named Laeka Vovkeena. The Laeka girl was only with him for a month and then she disappeared." The woman gasped and looked up at the others.

"Not disappeared. Simply ran away." The woman in the business suit chuckled and looked up at the ceiling.

Everyone in the room stared at her.

"So we can get Flint to become Mayor of the town?" one of the men asked.

"Yes, I suppose." The woman in the business suit smiled.

It got strangely quiet in the room after that. The only sound was the soft noise of crunching crackers and maybe the humming computer in the corner. Speaking of the humming, it seemed to get louder.

_Ding!_

The computer let out the ding and immediately every head in the room turned to look at it. It was just an email that came in. The woman in the business suit got up to see what the email was, but at the same time the phone on the table rang loudly.

She froze and retraced her steps back to the table. A trembling finger clicked the speaker button. As she did, a loud whispering voice began to speak.

"_Hello. Don't bother picking up the phone or even answering. I know you're listening."_The voice hissed and no one said anything.

The voice didn't sound familiar at all.

"_Listen up. If you want the money and want your town to stay safe, then listen to me. The WMRs have been scheduled to happen soon. The microchips have been hidden. THEY are watching. We are watching too. You have one minute to print out the email you just got or your computer will explode. Starting NOW! 60, 59…"_

"Wait, what?" the woman cried.

"_56, 55…_"

The two men dropped their beers and both raced to the computer to get the printer on.

"_48, 47, 46, 45, oh wait I pressed minus 10 second by accident! Oh silly me! 35, 34, 33…"_

"Holy f***! The printer is out of paper!" one of the men screamed.

The woman snatched up Mayor Shelbourne's profile file and raced over to stuff it into the printer.

But they were too late. A loud explosion erupted out of the computer.

** A/N: *evil smile* at first I didn't want the computer to explode. But I guess my evil self broke out of the closet and decided to explode it. Hope you guys liked that chapter! Happy CWACOM anniversary ^^**


	2. Chapter 2: The WMRs

**A/N: I'm starting to form and get used to the OCs I have created for this story (Ettabeth, Sym and Laeka). They will come in the next few chapters. Plus what I've decided to do for this story is that I'll stick the sequel to this story right into this fanfic. So Part 1 is the original and then Part 2 will be the so-called sequel =)**

The smoke cleared and four heads peeked out from under the table. The explosion hadn't been too great and the only damage it had done was no more than a destroyed computer and a burnt carpet. And of course maybe the desk the computer sat on.

"What in the world, was _that_?" one of the men blinked, gripping his half empty beer bottle to his chest.

The woman in the business suit dusted herself off and rose to her feet. She fixed the bun on her head and approached the very desk where the computer sat. The desk was pretty much gone too. Its only remains were two of the desk's legs.

Scratching her head, she began to think about the explosion. It was _strange_. That's all she could pretty much say. It has never happened before, but she wasn't surprised. She was used to strange things like this happening.

As long as nothing like this happened to the town. She didn't want random things exploding around town. Because then everyone would point fingers at Flint Lockwood. He was usually the one who worked with explosives, or at least had inventions go haywire.

"I don't know. But WE are the Founders and Co-Founders of this town, and I plan to keep this town safe. Previous Founders, who have died, told us to take care of this town and that is what we'll do!" the woman turned to glance at her follow colleagues.

"Yeah, if people only knew we existed! _No one_in this town knows we clean up the Mayor's dirty work! Well except for the Food Incident… we just stayed put…" the man with the beer bottle sighed.

"That don't matter! We just continue with our job and make sure no jerks bomb the town!" the other man grinned. He seemed to be a bit drunk from chugging at least three bottles of beer.

The only who hadn't spoken was the quiet woman in her jeans and orange t-shirt. She just stared at the phone on the table. She jumped when the phone rang and a call came in. Biting her lip, she leaned across the table and clicked the answer button.

The same voice from before sang throughout the room.

"_Oopsie! Well that interesting, right?"_the voice sneered.

The woman in the business suit stomped over to the table and leaned in angrily. Her hands gripped the edge of the table to prevent herself from falling forward. She was furious.

"Who the hell are you?" she barked at the phone.

"_Hehe…not so fast! Let's just say for now, that we work with the government. Alrighty? Good. Last night, we've put posters around the town, pretty much across America and only SOME parts of the world, regarding the WMRs. If ChewandSwallow wins, we give you the money to pay all your bills or whatever you have there. All other information is on the poster."_The man explained in a nasally voice and hung up.

The woman in the business suit stared at the phone for a long time. She was trying to process the things she had heard, through her mind.

Finally she straightened up and her eyes met with her fellow Founders.

"Whatever the heck these WMRs are, we will win them." She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded at everyone with a stern look.

"Whooo! The hell we will!" the drunk man pumped his fist into the air and grabbed the last beer bottle from the cooler.

The other Founders nodded and the woman in the business suit said that she was gonna go into town and take a look at the poster. The quiet woman looked nervous about that idea.

"And if someone sees you?" she asked.

"I'll make sure they won't." the woman in the business suit smiled and stepped out of the room to change.

When she left the room, the quiet woman tried to check the caller's ID and maybe the strange man's phone number. The two men just sat there drinking and watching the woman checking the phone.

They eventually got bored, and when one of the men reached for another drink, he gasped the second he noticed the cooler was empty. Narrowing his eyes, he glanced at the drunk guy, who was finishing off his bottle.

Angrily, the man grabbed the cooler and dumped the contents on the drunk man's head. Cold crushed ice tumbled out and fell into his hair. Some fell down the front and back of his shirt.

He howled and pushed the cooler off his head. It crashed to the floor and the lid snapped off. Leftover ice scattered across the floor and began to leave puddles as it melted.

Dancing weirdly around the room to get the ice out of his shirt, the drunk man was screaming at the top of his lungs. The other man was laughing hysterically and the woman at the phone just rolled her eyes.

The other woman entered the room. She wasn't wearing her business suit anymore. This time she wore jeans, black converse, and a white tank top with a jean jacket over. Her hair was out of its bun and fell just over her shoulders. She had big sunglasses covering almost half her face.

"You look like a teenager." The drunk guy stopped dancing and just tore off his shirt to get the ice out. No one paid attention to that.

"I don't care how I look. As long as none of the ChewandSwallow citizens recognize me." She replied and adjusted the sunglasses.

She was already finding them uncomfortable. Now that she thought about it, the jeans were a little too tight and the jean jacket felt small. _You're not twenty years old anymore, so stop complaining,_ she scolded to herself.

"Take it as a compliment! Your little brother would never have looked so good in clothes like that!" the drunk man called after her, as she left the room.

"My brother is now DEAD! Why should I care what he would look like in anything?" the woman called over her shoulder and the remaining three Founders heard the door slam.

xxx

As Flint came closer to the white building of City Hall, he saw five teenagers crowded around the City Hall's outside bulletin board. He walked over to them and the teens fell silent when they heard someone standing behind them.

"What's going on?" he asked them with a smile.

"Something called The World Microchip Races." One of the teens named Lydia grinned and squinted her eyes, as she read the rest of the poster.

"They sound epic! I mean a paid trip around the world? Hidden microchips?" a teen named Amy glanced at the poster from Lydia's right side with glinting eyes and a wide smile.

"If we make it out alive." A teen named Kalina whispered with a hidden smirk and next to her a boy named William whipped out his phone to take a picture of the poster.

Next to Amy and Lydia, a boy named Jacob leaned in to read small words at the bottom of the poster. He frowned and gestured for everyone to read them.

All five leaned forward at the same time and nearly fell over.

"It says: We are not responsible for any kind of death or any lost items. If anyone gets murdered, kidnapped, shot or pushed off a building, IT ISN'T OUR FAULT. You chose to go on this trip, so that's your problem." William read out loud.

"That sounds harsh." Jacob winced and the rest nodded.

Behind them, Flint frowned. He waited till the teens left and then finally managed to approach the poster.

It was a large poster with the letters 'WMR' printed in a huge red font at the top. Underneath the letters, it had the words 'World Microchip Races' printed in black letters. Below that, it had a whole description written in a smaller font. Flint began to read.

_The World Microchip Races (WMRs) are a set of races planned around the world. The teams participating will travel to different places around the world, without knowing where those places are at first. All trips will be paid ahead of time._

_Unless you break the rules._

_There are 10 microchips hidden. 5 of them are the real ones and the other 5 are not. The team to find the most microchips will win a check for 50 million dollars. The microchips have to be real. How do you know if they're real or fake? You don't until the end._

_The starting point is in Time Square in NYC on the 3__rd__of November. Teams will meet there and we will choose six teams. Each team can only have three members at most. Anymore than that and you will be disqualified._

_Any questions regarding the WMRs will be answered in NYC. Any questions regarding the use of the microchips once they are found won't be answered._

Flint re-read the poster and then his eyes fell on the sign-up sheet next to the poster. There were three blank places there. A pen was taped to the board.

His hand reached out to grab the pen. But he hesitated. These races didn't sound too safe. People could actually die.

Ignoring those thoughts, he snatched the pen off the board and wrote his name on the first line. Then after a quick thought, he added Brent's name on the second name. Hopefully no one will take the last spot. He wanted to save that space for Sam.

Well, first he had to call her and ask her.

"Lovely, morning. Ain't it?" came a woman's voice behind him.

Flint jumped and turned to see a woman with blonde hair a little longer than her shoulders, standing there. She wore huge sunglasses, so it was hard to recognize her. She wasn't exactly tall, but wasn't short either.

"Uh, yeah." Flint stammered and moved aside so the woman could see the poster.

She pulled an old flip phone out of her pocket and took at least ten pictures of the poster. Then she glanced at Flint, before muttering out a 'Good day to you' before walking away.

He shrugged and walked away from the poster too. After he turned to go, he saw citizens of ChewandSwallow like Joe Towne, Officer Earl, his wife Regina and his son Cal, Rufus, Frida Johnson, and other citizens approach the bulletin board. He wondered what their reactions will be about the WMRs.

Once he was a little away from the bustling crowd around the poster, he pulled out his cellphone and speed-dialed Sam. Pressing the phone to his ear, he hoped she would pick up right away.

"Allo?" came the thick-accented voice of Manny.

"Manny! Uh, is Sam there?" Flint asked and crossed his fingers on his free hand.

"No. Sam is packing her bags." Manny replied and Flint's face fell.

_Packing for what?_Flint thought. When Flint didn't say anything, Manny realized that he was confused.

"She is getting ready for something called the WMRs or something like that." Manny explained.

"Oh. I was going to ask her if she wanted to be on my team." Flint sighed.

"Sorry. Patrick Patrickson is on my and Sam's team. He forced us to join him. He says it'll be a weather report too, but I highly doubt that. Don't worry; we'll help each other in the races. I know you want to spend more time with Sam." Manny said and Flint heard someone yelling in the background.

Suddenly, Manny hung up. Flint sighed again and held the phone in his hand a little longer. He really did want to spend time with Sam. Even if Manny said his team will help Flint's, Flint didn't think Patrick will let any of that happen.

First he had to find another member to join his team.

November the 3rdwas actually the day after tomorrow.

And these WMRs could be on big deathtrap.

**A/N: Tada! Another chapter done! **


	3. Chapter 3: When things suddenly go bad

**A/N: In this chapter, I introduce a bit of Laeka and Etta. It's just to let you guys see what they're like. But there will be things you won't know about them…Then comes a fight. ;D **

**Next chappie the WMRs begin =)**

The 24 year old girl stood there, leaning against her mother's work desk. She blew out a bubble gum bubble that was almost as big as her face and then carefully sucked it in.

_POP!_

"Laeka Alexandrovna Vovkeena! I told you TEN times to stop doing that!" a woman with long black hair raised her head and glared at her daughter.

"Well, _sorry_! You want me to stay in this stupid office, so let me do whatever." She slipped her hands into her black jean jacket and fell back into a leather swivel chair.

Popping her gum again, she raised her feet and let her black combat boots prop on top of the work desk. When her mother sent a glare her direction, Laeka just grinned and rocked back and forth in the chair. Her mother sighed and shoved her daughter's feet off the desk.

Laeka Alexandrovna Vovkeena was a skinny, pale girl with mischievous electric blue eyes and black hair. Her hair. She could go on and on about it.

It was short. Really short. It was a boy cut and the longest hairs only reached the bottoms of her ears. She also hated the black color, so she would have new colorful streaks in her hair every couple of months. Just last week, her black hair had lime green highlights. Before that it was bloody red. The red had stayed there for a while, before she got tired of it.

Right now it was a dark neon blue that sort of matched her eyes.

Her outfit made her mother frown, but lots of people seemed to like it. Those people were mostly her friends, but she didn't care.

At this moment, she wore her white skinny jeans. There was a huge hole on the knee and it got bigger as she picked at it. Her shirt was a concert t-shirt. It had paint stains in some places, but she didn't care. Over her shirt she wore her favorite black jean jacket and on her feet were her black combat boots.

"Not whatever, Laeka! You will straighten up this instant and maybe behave for once. Go read a book. I need to work." Her mother glanced at her with tightened lips.

"Read? I've already finished the book. Besides, what exactly could you be working on? Huh? Your shift ended twenty minutes ago!" She got to her feet and planted her hands on her hips.

"I'm working! Please, leave me alone, hon." Her mother didn't even look up at her annoyed daughter.

Letting out an exaggerated sigh, Laeka paced around the room with her boots making loud stomps on the carpet.

Laeka lived with her mother for a long time already. 8 years to be exact. She looked up at the ceiling and stopped stomping. _Nah, 7 years since birth with mom, then 9 years with an idiot, and now 8 years with mom again. Life is so freaking complicated._She rolled her eyes.

She didn't know much of her life's story, but she knew some things.

First of all, she wasn't Russian. Even if her name was Russian, she wasn't. Her name _was_Laeka, but her middle and last name were just fake. Her mother said that Laeka had to get those names because of some strange reason. Did Laeka know the reason? Nope.

Her mother never mentioned Laeka's father. Laeka presumed that either her mother simply had an affair with some guy from school, or her father was just too ugly to reveal. She had thought along the lines of a divorce, but her mother didn't seem like that type.

What Laeka _had_been told, was that her father was still alive. This kinda made her angry. To think that your father was out there and you probably never met him pissed her off.

When she was 7 years old, her mother brought her to a gloomy little town. There she lived with who her mother called 'an old friend'. She was just miserable there. She lived in a huge house with a boy her age, a creepy guardian and one scary cat.

All she remembered from there was that her guardian's name was Remo and the cat's name was Edwardson Von Fluffy. The boy's name was hidden somewhere in the back of her mind. She didn't remember that.

The cat really scared her. It was a fat Persian longhair white cat with huge orange eyes that watched your every move. She always felt like that cat was following her. She also believed that her guardian cared about his cat more than her and the boy.

At the age of 16, she stole Edwardson Von Fluffy and ran away. She never told anyone what she did with the cat and no one ever really asked.

No one really found her when she ran away either. Somehow she managed to get to her mother, who was living in a small town near New York City.

This was where they were now.

"Can I go outside?" Laeka asked, without turning around.

Her mother looked up from her computer screen and raised a thin eyebrow.

"Last time you asked me that, you ran off with your friends and hitch-hiked all the way to Boston," her mother replied. Laeka rolled her eyes.

"Listen, there was a reason I hitch-hiked all the way to Boston. But this time, I won't go anywhere. I just need some fresh air. This office is getting too stuffy." Laeka finally turned around and batted her eyelashes pleadingly at her mother.

"Fine. Be back in an hour." Her mother sighed and her fingers drummed against the table.

Laeka smiled and skipped out of the room with her gum snapping as she left.

xxx

The sun was setting over the town of ChewandSwallow. Winking out its last rays, it was bowing down to the horizon. The sun's bright sunlight had already slipped off Flint's lab and was turning the town into shadows.

A faint moon was seen in the sky and it got more visible as the horizon swallowed up the light. Spreading out wings of moonlight, the moon glowed a beautiful white shine.

A display of warm colors across the sky turned into cold, dark ones. Night was eating up the last of day.

Inside Flint's lab, Flint held a checklist in his hand and a ballpoint pen in the other. Beside him, Brent was rummaging through a black backpack and eating a huge KitKat bar.

Flint was only bringing his red backpack along to the WMRs, while Brent had his backpack and whole bunch of suitcases with the letters B.B. on every bag. Flint had told Brent that he couldn't bring the suitcases. With a crunch from his bar, Brent argued back.

"All the stuff I need is in there." Brent zipped up his backpack and straightened up. He crossed his arms and looked down at the crazy-haired inventor.

"Like what?" Flint eyed the suitcases. He had a feeling that any second, something would jump out.

"Well…Uh…" Brent scratched the back of his head and bit his lip, as Flint came over to one of the suitcases and unzipped it.

"Your Xbox 360 platform and controller is in here! Brent! Oh my goodness, what is that?" Flint pointed at a huge white sheet covering something big.

Stuffing the rest of the chocolate bar into his mouth, Brent grinned and reached into the bag. Grunting, he pulled out the object Flint pointed at and whipped the sheet off. A loud gasp came from Flint.

"Are you CRAZY? W-why in the name of double rainbows would you take THAT along with you?" Flint's eyes widened to almost twice their size.

Brent held it beside him and beamed.

It was a huge professional painting of Brent himself. He was standing in his light blue track suit with a can of sardines in his right hand and a rolled up edition of the infamous _Swallow Falls Post_in his left hand. His pose was where one foot was up on a sardine crate and the hand with the newspaper was on his hip. The hand with the can of sardines was held high, like it was some prized trophy.

"You like it?" Brent asked and gazed proudly at the painting.

"Not really. No," Flint cringed and looked away from the painting, "Don't you think it's kinda weird lugging around a painting of yourself?"

Brent wrapped the painting with the white sheet again and shrugged, "Nah…It just reminds me how handsome I was back then, and how now I'm handsomer."

Flashing out a big grin, Brent made the same pose in the painting.

Rolling his eyes Flint unzipped another one of Brent's suitcases. This one held normal stuff like clothes, phone charger, travel books, etc. He nodded to himself and zipped the suitcase up.

A horrible stench wafted up from the last suitcase. Flint knew that smell well. It brought back bad memories. It also reminded him of life before the Great Food Incident.

Reaching down, Flint unzipped the suitcase and pinched his fingers over his nose. The suitcase was filled to the top with cans of sardines. They were all the famous Baby Brent Sardines.

Brent smiled and snatched a can from the suitcase. He pulled the tin lid back and dumped the whole can into his mouth.

"Oh God… How _can_you still eat them?" Flint eyed the sardine cans with a look of disgust dawning on his face.

"Dude, they're good! Plus I want to try selling them to some of the countries in the world. Well, the countries we visit during the WMRs." Brent told Flint and peeked into the can. He was hoping that there would be something left on the bottom.

Flint couldn't really see any country in the world that would enjoy eating sardines. But maybe it was because Swallow Falls had been swamped in them, so the town just tired of them. He wondered if maybe there was another fishing country or island that had to eat the same fish for their whole lives.

"I bet we're the only place on this earth that eats, er, _ate_so many sardines," Flint mumbled.

"Nope! France, Morocco, Portugal, India, Norway, Peru, Turkey, Spain, the UK, parts of the USA, and Russia are sorta big sardine eaters." Brent zipped up the horrible smelling suitcase.

"You're serious? And when did you have the time to remember all those countries? It took you a whole 2 extra months to learn the multiplication tables in 2ndgrade, while the rest of the class memorized them in 2 weeks. You still can't remember the periodic table and probably don't even remember what an Oxford comma is! You can hardly remember anything! I mean actually memorizing a few countries must be a big deal to you," Flint joked.

He felt horrible when those words left his mouth. Even if he had just been joking, he felt a bitter taste in his mouth. _Since when were my jokes so mean?_

Brent clenched his fists at his sides, "HEY! I probably know a lot more than you!"

Flint gulped, "Okay, what's the square root of 20,449?"

Nervously, Flint looked at his spray on shoes. Now he just felt plain mean. _What has gotten into you?_A voice squeaked in his mind.

Eyebrows furrowed downward, Brent tapped his chin. He looked up at Flint. By the looks of it, he didn't look too happy. When he did look up, Brent looked really annoyed.

"It's not my fault you're a walking calculator!" Brent snapped and glared at Flint.

Flint didn't respond. These were one of those moments where it was best not to say anything. He knew how this would end. Not too good.

Last time he and Brent got into a fight, Sam had to pull them apart. She had taken Flint aside and had a long talk with him. She had realized that Flint was getting into too many fights with people recently. She had asked him if something was bothering him or if he was stressing out about something.

"_Flint. Look at me. Please tell me what's wrong." She had asked and took his face in her hands._

_His hands reached up and covered hers. He brought them off her face and held them tight. They were shaking and Sam felt this. She squeezed them tight and gave Flint a sweet smile._

_Blue eyes met green ones and the green ones didn't dare blink. Blue ones closed and green eyes widened in concern._

_Sam slipped her hands out of Flint's and then wrapped her arms around Flint. She pulled him into a hug and rested her head on his shoulder._

"_It's all over isn't it?" Flint blinked back tears._

"_What's over?" Sam asked and raised her head off his shoulder._

_There was something seriously bothering Flint. Sam had to find out what it was before things got worse and Flint would be having nervous breakdowns on his lab floor. Racking her brain for anything that be making Flint so upset, Sam leaned back and looked into his deep blue eyes again._

"_I-I can't say." Flint then turned away and stepped away from Sam._

_She opened her mouth to speak. All that really came out was a long sigh._

"You know what? If you're gonna be so… so…" Brent began in a loud voice and tore Flint away from his thoughts about Sam.

The inventor looked over at Brent and narrowed his eyes.

On the other hand, even if Brent had seemed like he had changed after the Great Food Incident, he didn't. Sometimes he acted like a friend to Flint, but other times it was the complete opposite. The bully Brent had always been would slip out and that's when Flint just didn't know how to react. He would find himself lashing out with shouts too.

_So maybe it's just Brent taking everything too seriously,_Flint thought, _unless we aren't really friends. Maybe we won't ever even be! I mean just because he's been nice to me for a few weeks, doesn't me it counts as a friendship. Right?_

Just as those ideas and thoughts flowed through Flint's mind, he knew he couldn't always stay back and not say anything.

"Say it! 'So' what? Well you know what? You too!" Flint snatched up his backpack and slung it roughly onto his back.

"FINE! MAYBE I WILL!" Brent grabbed his backpack off the floor and looked ready to storm off.

The two were staring at each other with fires ready to begin in their eyes and a volcano of words to explode from their mouths. Brent seemed to go off the hook first. Flint couldn't tell if he was just being plain honest or if it was the guy just being mean.

Opening his mouth to speak, Flint hoped to just tell Brent that they shouldn't be fighting over something so stupid. Of course he didn't. Things might take a wrong turn and fall into deep water. Then it would be almost impossible to swim out.

The words that came out of Brent's mouth that minute were worse than any swear word Flint ever heard. He had NEVER expected anything that horrible to come out of the Brent's mouth. To Flint it was slap in the face. It was worse than Brent calling him a freak.

"Maybe I don't even WANT to be in your group for the WMRs! You know what? I wish you died when that meatball exploded! No. I wish Mayor Shelbourne killed you off before you even got a chance to build that stupid flying car of yours! YES! You heard me! And maybe you don't even _want_someone like me in your group! Since I can't remember anything, like all those things you listed. And you wanna know something else? I can't believe we were ever friends for these few weeks!" Brent cried out in a rather loud voice.

Flint shrunk back.

"I wanted to even ask you if your father could possibly adopt me! So we could be brothers! But if you think I'm so dumb, then I'd rather live with Mayor Shelbourne if he were still alive!" Brent was on the verge of shouting now.

Flint's eyes were so wide; he didn't think he could keep them open like that for long. Not only that, but they becoming hot with tears that were forming on the rims of his eyes. He didn't dare let them out in front of Brent.

A heavy silence settled between the two and Flint didn't know how long it was going to last. The words Brent had yelled out hung in the air. They rang through Flint's ears. They kicked at his heart. They brought images to his mind.

Flint was really too frightened to say anything. He wanted to apologize, but something held him back. The words were lodged deep down in his throat and he just couldn't push them out.

_Brothers?_He asked himself. _Is that what he wanted?_Stopping for a second, he let Brent's other words fully store themselves into his mind. _Does he really mean those things? About not wanting to be friends or to be part of the WMRs? Oh… and about me dying. Why? Does he mean that too? Oh gosh…_Flint watched Brent.

"I'm leaving," Brent finally said. Carefully, he stacked his suitcases on top of each other. Each made a soft thud as Brent stacked all the smaller suitcases on top of the huge one that was filled with sardines.

"Brent…" Flint began, but Brent was already out into the lab's tunnel.

The elevator door was slammed open with a grunt and then slammed shut even louder. There was the familiar _whoosh_as Brent went down and then the sound of him finally hitting ground floor.

"…I'm sorry," Flint finished. He didn't know who he was really saying it to. There was no in the room with him at the—

"Bad?"

Flint looked down to see Steve pulling at his pant leg. The monkey's bright orange eyes had clouded over, when he saw how upset Flint was. The monkey let go of Flint's pant leg and then slowly held out his small warm hand.

Crouching down, Flint took the monkey's hand. Steve grasped it and clambered onto Flint's shoulder. He let go of it and hugged Flint tightly around the neck.

"It all okay," Steve replied in his usual slightly robotic voice.

Even though the words came from the Monkey Thought Translator, Flint felt actual emotions on the edge of Steve's voice.

"Thanks Steve," Flint murmured, hugging his monkey back.

xxx

The very minute that Brent left Flint's lab and stepped into his backyard, he spotted someone sitting behind a box filled with old fireworks.

It was strange. You usually didn't find strange people sitting in people's backyards. They could also be anyone! It could have been a thief, trying to steal one of Flint's shenanigans. Those were always equipped with something. Once they jumped out, you had to pray that they wouldn't hurt you in anyway. Brent had a huge fear for thieves and robbers.

This one time, some knucklehead broke into Mayor Shelbourne's house, while Brent lived there. Whoever it was stripped the house down from top to bottom. All those useless thousand dollar paintings, the marble statues in the hallways, all the silverware, all the carpets, even the diamond encrusted cat collar (that belonged to Edwardson Von Fluffy) and pretty much everything else in between.

Brent hoped it wasn't a robber in the bushes.

It could have been a serial killer. The image that Brent had of those was one with a bloody roaring chainsaw and some ski mask. He was glad he never had any experience with those.

Two wide sea-green eyes met Brent's blue eyes from the bushes and he nearly had a heart attack. The person slowly rose to their feet and Brent was taken back.

It was a girl. Not a robber and defiantly not a serial killer with a bloody chainsaw and ski mask. She looked to be about his age, but something about her told Brent that she was younger. Her face was smeared with dirt and dust, but her clothes seemed to be surprisingly clean.

She reached up and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Her hair was a cinnamon color with two orange streaks around her face. On the top of her head, sand colored hair grew. The girl looked like she either needed to re-dye her cinnamon color or let her sandy roots grow out.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Brent snapped. Now that he knew (or so he thought) the girl wasn't dangerous, his snappy mood returned.

The girl fixed the strap on her messenger bag, which hung on her shoulder. She walked out from behind the box and came over to Brent. Crossing her arms over her chest, she looked Brent over.

"Who are YOU? And what are YOU doing here?" she smiled up at Brent.

Brent wasn't amused.

"Listen, you aren't supposed to be here. This is private property," Brent replied gruffly.

The girl didn't lose her smile. Brent looked down at her outfit. She wore a gray hoodie that read _University of Swallow Falls_and washed out jean shorts. There were dirty black flip-flips on her feet.

The girl didn't even look like she graduated from university. She looked to be about the age of a high school student. At least that's what Brent thought.

"I know." The girl grinned. She could still possibly be a robber.

"Listen. Get out of here. You're ruining my already bad mood," Brent frowned.

The girl took Brent's hand and shook it hard, "My name is Ettabeth! But you can me Etta or Ettie for short! Most people call me Ettie, but that's only because they know me well. There's this grump that lives on Cresent View Lane and he calls me Ettabeth. Oh! But I guess you aren't like that grump. You can call me Etta or Ettie. So what's your name? I don't think I've ever met you. Ho-hum you look familiar. Uh… OH! Are you Baby Brent? Oh, okay you don't seem happy with that name. So just Brent?" Etta replied in a cheery voice. The whole time she spoke, she had been shaking Brent's hand vigorously.

Her cheeriness made Brent slightly annoyed. He wondered if she always talked this much.

"Uh, yeah. I'm Brent. Now, uh, can you please let go of my hand? I need to be somewhere." He looked down at Etta's hand, which was still slowly shaking his.

She nodded and let go. Slipping her hands into her hoodie pocket's she looked up at Brent again. Sighing, Brent glanced down at her. She reminded him a lot of a lost puppy.

"Where do you need to be?" Etta asked.

Brent groaned and began to leave the yard. He kicked aside one of Flint's boxes and hurried away. Not giving up, Etta just followed.

"That is NONE of your business. Go home to your parents and remember not to go into people's backyards." Brent grumbled.

It got so quiet that Brent thought that Etta had died for a few seconds. He stopped walking and turned around. He leaned down and peeked at her face. She was staring at her flip-flops with a lost expression. Biting his lip, he hoped he hadn't hurt her feeling or anything. _Did I say something?_Brent poked her in the shoulder.

Slowly, Etta raised her head. Her eyes were two whirlpools that Brent just fell into. Two chasms of roaring water. The water was now spilling out and streaming down her cheeks. It was a single tear drop rolling down her soft cheeks. These were the eyes of a lost girl. Robbers didn't shed tears. Brent felt horrible for ever thinking she might be one.

"I haven't got any parents. They disappeared during a huge storm. The town had been flooded. I might have had a cousin or sibling. Don't remember. But I know they aren't dead. I _believe_that they aren't dead," she murmured.

"A storm…?" Brent trailed off.

"You bet! There was water EVERYWHERE! Rain was coming down and there might have been thunder and—" Etta began to wave her hands dramatically.

"How do you remember what the weather was like, and not remember your siblings or parents?" Brent asked suspiciously.

Smiling slowly, Etta wiped away her tear.

"I remember my last name," she smiled.

Brent looked down at the girl and studied her face. She looked awfully familiar and he felt like he knew whose family she belonged to. What she defiantly _wasn't_ was a Lockwood or Shelbourne. She could belong to anyone else in the town.

Maybe she wasn't even from this town. But Etta's face, especially her smile and her deep eyes, looked really, _really_familiar.

"Uh, Brent? What are you still doing here?" Flint suddenly called from his lab window.

Anger returned to Brent and he spun around to glance up at Flint. The inventor looked upset, yet hopeful. As if Brent had come back to say sorry. Sadly, it was nothing like that. Flint didn't know that Brent never even left the yard.

"I was about to leave. I met this… uh…" Brent started to say. Confused he looked around for Etta.

She was gone. Just like that. Without saying 'goodbye' or at least telling Brent her last name. Now Brent would go home with Etta unknown last name trapped in his mind. He _had_to know. It was killing him.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm not talking to you, until you apologize." Flint blinked down at Brent and sniffed. He pulled out a tissue and blew his nose.

Steve appeared next to Flint and stuck his tongue out at Brent.

"Say that again! I'm not apologizing till _you_apologize!" Brent scolded and shook his fist up at Flint.

Flint shouted something back down at Brent, telling him how it was all just a simple misunderstanding. Steve yelled out a bucket full of random words and tried to sound angry.

This caused Brent to bark something back at Flint, before he turned away. When he left the yard, Flint just watched him leave. Next to him, Steve kept on screaming.

Now if you looked past Flint's yard and into a bush between the driveway and the backyard wire fence, you'd find someone there. Not Etta. But close. Defiantly someone who lived in ChewandSwallow.

This time it could have been a robber or serial killer. Brent would have thought so. There was a ski mask on the person's face, but no chainsaw.

This person also seemed to love eavesdropping onto people's conversations and arguments. Not to mention talking to themselves.

"Clocks ticking! Tick-tock… Oh, Flint and Brent better hurry if they want to see their Doves. Tick-tock…Sam better hurry and win the WMRs, so we can force Flint to help us with the Faltic Process. Tick-tock… Destination one: Washington DC. Tick-tock…" the person sang out in a whisper.

_Sir we have located microchip one._A radio crackled from the person's hand.

"Don't worry. I'm about to hire five teens to help. They don't know what we are up to, so we can kill them off in the end," the person answered with a crooked smile.

_Got it. Washington DC here we come._

**A/N: Just so you guys know, the dude at the end isn't Patrick and it isn't an OC either. It's an actual character from the movie ;)**

**Hope you guys liked the chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4: Time Square, NYC

When Brent woke up the next morning, he smiled to himself. The WMRs were the next day and today he had to finish packing and get his butt to NYC.

He knew what would happen if he got to NYC late. The place would be really, _really_ crowded and it would be pretty hard to get into Time Square without being trampled by the immense crowd. Not to mention the place would be filled with police, maybe a few ambulances, and a lot of news reporters. Hey, you never know. Some huge celebrity might end up showing up and then the place would have paparazzi sneaking around.

Sleepily, Brent opened his eyes. Last night, he expected to have a really good night's sleep. Unfortunately he didn't. He had been tossing and turning all night. Not to mention that horrible feeling in his gut. It had to do with his fight with Flint earlier.

Rolling over onto his back, he expected to see the high white dappled ceiling of his bedroom. Instead he saw someone standing over him with a huge grin on their face. Brent let out a loud scream similar to that of a 4 year old girl and bolted up in bed. He nearly had a heart attack right there.

The person moved aside.

"ETTA! What are you doing here?" he screamed out and pulled his covers up to his chin.

The girl smiled at him with her usual wide grin.

"I broke into the house with only a single hairpin." She beamed proudly and held up a bent up, crooked hairpin.

Brent stared at her with a horrified expression. "_WHAT_? Why'd you break into the house? Couldn't you just ring the doorbell?"

"Pfft, if only this stupid house _had_ a doorbell! Oh! I wanted to ask you if I could use one of your bathrooms. I need to take a shower, because I went scavenging through the old sardine factory last night and I got all dusty. Then I was wondering if you could lend me some clothes to wear. I think my shorts are getting too worn out and the flip-flops don't seem like they could last too long. OH! And I passed by the kitchen downstairs! My God! It's HUGE! I haven't eaten for two days so I was—" Etta began with her long talk and if Brent hadn't leaned over the edge of his bed and slapped a hand over her mouth, she wouldn't have shut up.

He removed his hand and threw the bed sheets aside. In a swift motion, he got up from his bed. Sighing, he motioned for Etta to wait. She watched as he disappeared into the bathroom to wash up and throw on the clothes he left there.

While he was in the bathroom, Etta made Brent's bed and then cleaned up everything that was on the floor. She stacked up all the scattered newspapers into one pile, folded all his clean clothes and threw the dirty ones into a large hamper by the bed. She even managed to dust his dresser, TV and night table with a duster she pulled out of her messenger bag. All this took her only 15 minutes.

Brent stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt. He had thrown his blue track suit jacket on over the t-shirt and didn't even bother zipping it up.

When he stepped into his room, he blinked in confusion. _Uh, this doesn't look like my room…_

"I cleaned your room for you!" Etta smiled from where she stood. She was still standing in the same place Brent told her to stand in. To Brent it didn't even look like she even left her post.

"Uh…" He scratched the back of his head. Never _once_ in his life did he have a girl clean his room for him. It had always been something like 'Child! The maid isn't gonna clean your room! Do it yourself.' or 'You have 10 minutes to clean your room, or I'll lock you up in the linen closet for a week.'

"You're welcome!" she replied cheerfully.

Not knowing what to say, Brent simply smiled weakly at Etta and left the room. She followed him with a slight bounce in her step.

They made their way down the long hallway in silence. Etta looked around in awe at all the marble statues and paintings on the walls. She winced as they passed a deer's head nailed to the wall.

Brent led her to a tall, maroon door. When he opened it, Etta rushed inside. She stood in the middle of the bathroom with her jaw hitting the floor.

Everything was a blinding white: the marble floors, ceiling, bathtub, towels, sink, toilet, and even the fur carpet near the bathtub. The faucets were all gold plated and all the knobs on the sink and bathtub too. There was separate shower in fogged-up glass stall. In the corner there was a small glass statue of the Zodiac sign Aquarius with water pouring out of his hands.

"Wow…" Etta gasped and didn't even notice when her messenger bag slipped off her shoulder and fell to the floor with a thud.

The dirty messenger bag was so out of place compared to the rest of the room. Etta even noticed and gave her bag a small kick. _I seriously have to get that damn thing washed someday…_ She bit her lip.

"Okay I'll leave you then. I'll wait for you outside." Brent told her and awkwardly left the bathroom. Etta nodded and Brent closed the door.

In a few minutes, Brent heard the shower turn on and the sound of loud rushing water. He sighed and sat down on the floor outside the bathroom door. It was better to wait for Etta outside of the bathroom door. If Etta finished and Brent wasn't there, she might get lost in the huge house.

Suddenly he heard Etta singing something. Scrambling back to his feet, he pressed his ear to the door and listened in closely. She was defiantly singing. Another thing Brent had learned about Etta: she was actually a really good singer. Her voice was loud and the words flowed clearly and merrily out of her mouth.

Trying to hear what song she was singing, Brent squeezed his eyes shut and listened in. His eyes snapped open when the song hit him in the head and reached the deepest cores of his ears.

It was "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz.

_Well you've done done me and you bet I felt it_

_I tried to be cool but you're so hot that I melted_

_I fell right through the cracks_

_And now I'm trying to get back_

_Before the cool done run out_

_I'll be giving it my bestest_

_Nothing's going to stop me but divine intervention_

_I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some_

_I won't hesitate no more, no more_

_It cannot wait, I'm yours_

_Well open up your mind and see like me_

_Open up your plans and damn you're free_

_Look into your heart and you'll find love love love love_

_Listen to the music of the moment people dance and sing, we're just one big family_

_It's our God-forsaken right to be loved loved loved loved loved_

_So I won't hesitate no more, no more_

_It cannot wait I'm sure_

_There's no need to complicate_

_Our time is short_

_This is our fate, I'm yours_

Etta stopped singing for a moment and Brent heard her hum out some of the song. The shower's water shut off and Brent heard the shower stalls glass door screech open. _Well that was fast!_Brent thought.

He heard the sink water switch on and Etta continued singing in her cheerful voice. This time her singing voice wasn't as loud, but Brent didn't care. Just hearing her sing so freely like that put a smile on his face. And it wasn't just her singing. The song just brought all these happy emotions tearing through his thumping heart and flying with the sleeping butterflies in his stomach.

_I've been spending way too long checking my tongue in the mirror_

_And bending over backwards just to try to see it clearer_

_But my breath fogged up the glass_

_And so I drew a new face and I laughed_

_I guess what I'll be saying is there ain't no better reason_

_To rid yourself of vanities and just go with the seasons_

_It's what we aim to do_

_Our name is our virtue_

_But I won't hesitate no more, no more_

_It cannot wait, I'm yours_

_Well open up your mind and see like me_

_Open up your plans and damn you're free_

_Look into your heart and you'll find that the sky is yours_

_So please don't, please don't, please don't._

_There's no need to complicate_

_'cause our time is short_

_This oh, this oh, this is our fate, I'm yours_

She finished off the song with a long note on the word 'yours' and then hummed out the tune of the song.

The sink water was turned off and Brent stepped away from the door. He waited for Etta to come out.

"Uh, Brent? I'm done." She opened the door with a creak and peeked out at Brent. She slung her dirty messenger bag on her shoulder and stepped outside. A huge white fluffy towel was wrapped around her head like a turban and her sweater had drops of water all over it.

The towel on her head was so white that it looked as if it was actually glowing. Brent thought it really brought out her wide sea-green eyes and her thin-lipped smile.

"Now let's go find out some clothes, because those jean shorts and sweater won't last you too long." Brent looked down at her and they walked out of the hallway and down a long flight of stairs.

The stairs were lined in a thick wine colored carpet that made an annoying scratching noise as they made their way down. The carpet reminded Brent of one of those itchy sweaters he always wore in the winter.

"Hey, Brent?" Etta asked quietly.

"Hmmm?" he didn't even look at her. His mind was on the stupid scratchy carpet.

They reached the first floor and suddenly Etta grabbed Brent's arm. All the thoughts about replacing the carpet and such were gone from Brent's mind.

"I'm scared," she whispered and gripped his arm tight.

He looked down at her with raised eyebrows. He didn't really see what there was down here to be afraid of.

Unless she saw something when she broke in. _Or someone. Geez I wouldn't be surprised if someone else broke into my house._Brent rolled his eyes.

"Etta, there is _nothing_ to be afraid of. This house is completely safe!" Brent told her and shook her off his arm.

Shaking her head, she grabbed Brent's arm again and buried her face into it. He let out a loud sigh and began to walk. She didn't move at first, so it was hard for Brent to walk anywhere. Finally, her bare feet stomped across the soft carpet and she followed reluctantly.

"Well, when I broke in there was a noise in the kitchen!" she hissed and dug her nails into Brent's arm.

_Her nails! AHHH it hurts! What's up with girls and their sharp nails?_Brent winced.

They entered the kitchen and Brent flicked on the light switch. Immediately the room flooded with light. Across the kitchen, the windows were covered by curtains. Brent's stomach turned to stone, and he hoped there weren't any creepers hiding behind those curtains. Or any serial killers with their ski masks and chainsaws.

Brent glanced around and shook Etta off for good.

He went up to the sleek coffee machine next to stove and began to make himself and Etta some coffee. The loud sound of grinding coffee beans and bubbling water soon filled the kitchen.

Nervously, Etta went over to the high chairs that stood around the marble counter. She scrambled up onto one and pulled her legs up with her. With her sea-green eyes darting around, she pulled her knees to her chest.

Brent waited patiently for the coffee machine to finish making their coffee. _After I feed her and give her some coffee maybe she'll calm down. Then we'll go find her some clean clothes. And THEN I'll find something to cook for her._He turned around and glanced at Etta, who looked like she was about to have a heart attack any second now.

"Listen there is nothing to be… Oh my gosh what is that?" Brent exclaimed as he glanced up at the small chandelier that hung from the ceiling right over Etta's head.

Letting out a small squeak, Etta spun around in her chair and looked up. Right then her face changed. A huge grin spread across her face and her eyes twinkled knowingly.

"It's Teapot!" she cried out.

"_WHO?_" Brent demanded and reached for the frying pan that sat on the stove. He was both confused and petrified. Confused because he didn't really understand who 'Teapot' was, and petrified because there was some kind of living creature in the kitchen. It was defiantly not a cat or dog.

"My pet Ratbird! His name is Teapot!" Etta stood up on her chair and let out a short, low whistle.

The Ratbird peeked out from the top of the chandelier and then obediently swooped down and landed on Etta's outstretched arm. Brent watched with an open mouth and his frying pan held close to his chest.

"Oh who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? Huh? Teapot is! Oh, I thought you were someone frightening!" Etta crooned and stroked the top of the Ratbird's head.

The Ratbird let out what was a cross between a purr and a satisfied squawk. He nuzzled Etta's shoulder and a crooked smile grew on his beak.

"You have a pet Ratbird? Named Teapot? HOW? Please tell me you're kidding!" Brent eyed the Ratbird with the frying pan still in his hands.

The Ratbird looked over at Brent. He was sorta cross-eyed, but seemed to see Brent just fine. With an angry squawk, Teapot fluttered off Etta's arm and stumbled across the counter top. He approached Brent and the coffee machine with small hisses. The hissing sounded a lot like a cats hissing.

"Nope! I'm not kidding! I found Teapot injured a _loooong_ time ago. The Ratbirds didn't accept him for some reason, so they almost pecked him to death. I found him behind a dumpster covered in fresh wounds on his chest and two broken wings. The poor guy was badly injured, so I took him in and fixed him up. He'd always bit my fingers at first. I had to wear gloves when handling him. Plus he'd always hiss at me. I named him 'Teapot' because he always slept in an old teapot that I kept in my messenger bag. I broke the teapot one day, though. That was bad. But! Now he loves me and I love him back." Etta smiled warmly and watched Teapot like a proud mother watching her baby.

The Ratbird had now come up to the coffee machine and was looking at his reflection. He squawked curiously and then looked over at Brent. Teapot seemed interested in Brent.

Narrowing his eyes, Teapot walked over to him and stared at the frying pan in Brent's hands.

"So, uh, how'd he end up in this house?" Brent asked Etta and held the frying pan away from his chest.

Teapot fluttered off the counter top and over to the shiny back side of the frying pan.

"Probably followed me…" Etta trailed off and suddenly laughed.

Now Teapot was pecking the frying pan rapidly, as if he wanted to drill right through it. Brent held the pan further away from himself and tried to keep his fingers away from Teapot's sharp beak.

_Ding!_

"Oh! Coffee's ready! Etta please take Teapot from me, before he makes a dent in the pan!" Brent exclaimed and winced when Teapot accidentally hit his head on the pan.

Etta jumped from her seat and hurried over to her pet. She snatched him away and the Ratbird hissed loudly. Frowning, Etta grabbed the frying pan from Brent and Teapot stopped hissing. She took him over back to her seat and set the frying pan down on the counter top. Teapot fought out of Etta's arms and flew over to the pan.

He sat inside it and curled up into a tight ball. Long wings folded in and his rat tail wrapped around his body. Yawning, he closed his eyes. The Ratbird soon fell asleep, snoring loudly.

"Wow, he's a handful." Brent shook his head and placed a mug of coffee in front of Etta.

She looked into her mug and peered down at the dark liquid. Without saying anything, she got up and came over to the tall, double-door, stainless steel refrigerator.

Grabbing both handles, she grunted and heaved the two heavy fridge doors open. They opened with a heavy click and cold air blasted right into Etta's face. She located what she needed and loaded her arms with everything she needed. Next, she closed the two doors with a swing of her right hip and a full-bodied push.

Back in her seat, she set everything she took out around her. Brent watched her as he went to sit down beside her.

She took the spoon Brent offered her. Snatching up the milk carton, she poured some milk into her coffee. Then she grabbed the whipped cream can and shook it hard. Turning it over, she sprayed a mountain of whipped cream over her coffee. After that, she took the bottle of chocolate syrup and poured some over her whipped cream. Finally she ripped open the bag of cherries and placed the reddest cherry on top of everything.

"Ta-da! Beautiful isn't it?" she showed Brent her masterpiece.

"You should try working at Starbucks!" he laughed.

"I should!" She grabbed her spoon and tried to eat some of the whipped cream. She gasped when her cherry sunk through all the whipped cream and landed with a plop into her coffee.

Brent watched as she took the mug and tried to drink some of the coffee. She lifted her face from the mug and half her face was covered in whipped cream. He laughed at her and she lifted a finger to wipe off everything.

"SO! Tell me about where you were planning on going to yesterday!" she said as she licked her whipped cream covered finger.

"I was gonna go finish packing for the WMRs." Brent sighed and remembered his fight with Flint. That made him bit his lip in worry. He actually felt really horrible right about now.

"The WMRs? Hey, wasn't there a poster on that on the City Hall bulletin board? I didn't read the poster though…" Etta frowned and looked over at Brent.

Brent began to explain to Etta everything that Flint had told him about the WMRs. It was all that was pretty much on the poster. He told her about the 10 hidden microchips and how 5 were the real ones. How all 10 were hidden around the world. Then how the team who found the most real microchips won 50 million dollars.

Brent stopped right there. If the reward for these microchips was 50 million dollars, then they must have been really, _really_important. He didn't remember Flint telling him anything about _why_ they were needed. Brent didn't even know _who_ was hosting these microchip races.

It could have been some government officials who were part of this. Or it could have been some thugs who came up with this whole thing. There might not even _be_ 50 million dollars! It could all be just a big joke.

"So you leave tomorrow?" Etta asked, "OH! Can I come too? Please, please? With a giant mutated cherry on top?" she pleaded.

"Fine." Brent sighed.

"WHOOO! Thank you! SO MUCH!" she jumped up from her seat and danced around the room with a huge grin on her face.

Brent sighed. If Etta was tagging along, then her pet Ratbird would probably be coming too. _I can't believe I just met this girl yesterday and already I feel like I've known her forever._

xxx

**Date:**November 3rd, 2009

**Location:**Time Square, New York City

**Time:**10:03am

The morning had been cloudy, chilly and not as warm as Flint had expected it to be. What he expected was a warm November morning with the sun smiling down and the sky remaining cloudless.

The autumn wind streaked around the city's tall buildings and when it reached the people, it would cuff them sharply across their faces. It carried crinkled leaves around the city and smashed them down on the ground, where people would step on them.

Flint's huge backpack was stuffed with clothes for all types of weather as well as a world travel book, a pack of gummy bears for Steve, and a whole lot of other stuff. Including his Spray-On Shoes. The can was pretty big and took up quite a lot of space. When he had been zipping up his backpack, it took him at least 20 minutes to finally zip it up.

But he was glad that he was prepared. He hadn't forgotten a single thing. Not even Steve, who sat on his shoulder nibbling on a saltine cracker.

The monkey desperately wanted a gummy bear, but Flint kept saying 'later'. Now Flint felt like the monkey was gonna explode from impatience. He was practically bouncing on Flint's shoulder.

"Okay, we need to find out where we tell the people our team, find Brent and find Sam. We HAVE to find Sam. Steve, I feel like I'm gonna explode without her. I really miss her." Flint told his monkey.

"Ka-BOOM!" Steve nodded and spat the rest of his cracker over Flint's shoulder. It landed on the ground with a splat.

"Let's go, bud!" Flint gripped his backpack straps and suddenly began to run down the sidewalk, dodging people as he ran. Steve yelped in surprise when Flint sprinted off.

There were so many people in Time Square that morning that Flint began to wonder how many teams there were. Only six teams would be chosen. _What if Sam's team gets chosen and my team doesn't? No! I cannot let such a thing happen!_Flint pumped his thin legs faster as he ran.

Tilting his head slightly upward, he saw the huge Time Square JumboTron up ahead displaying a WMRs commercial. Looking away from the commercial, he began to look ahead. He didn't want to face-plant the sidewalk now. Usually when he was caught looking upward and running to someplace, he _always_ fell. It didn't matter where he was.

People shouted at him, as he pushed roughly past them. He ignored all shouts and screams. All he cared about now was to get to the WMRs center, where he'd meet up with Brent, find another team member and maybe see Sam.

"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" Steve cried out as he bounced up and down on Flint's shoulder. His little paws were holding on for dear life. He was really close to slipping off Flint's shoulder and getting lost in the mob.

"I see it! There it is!" Flint shouted and shoved aside a few more people.

Ahead was the heart and center of Time Square. There had been a huge platform stage set up with people standing on it. People (probably the WMRs leaders) hustled around the stage and called out to each other urgently.

Police were everywhere. They had blocked all the lanes, so cars weren't able to come through. Not only that, but they marched around watching the people around the platform stage closely. Flint began to wonder why. It was just a stage.

Coming closer to the stage, Flint noticed that there weren't really that many people there. After pushing through a small crowd of people, he found himself and Steve in front of the stage.

Two police officers turned their heads to look over at him. Neither of them smiled or even moved.

A bald man sat at a table near the stage. He saw Flint and raised both eyebrows. Thick glasses sat perched on his small button nose. The glasses raised a bit too when the guy's eyebrows did.

"Name?" he asked in a bored voice; his eyebrows and glasses dropping. The question rolled off his tongue so easily; it seemed like he had been asking people that all morning.

"Flint Lockwood." Flint answered and peered at the papers that the man held. There were a bunch of papers he didn't recognize. There was one though. It was the sign-up sheet from ChewandSwallow.

Nodding to himself, the man checked off Flint's name and handed him a huge sticker with a bold number '43' on it.

"Put that on now and make sure you stay around here to hear if you and your team get chosen." The man yawned and shuffled his papers around.

"Uh, sir? I was just wondering if new members were allowed to join now. Um, my team only has three members so…" Flint trailed off nervously.

"We just had our last new members join. I'm sure they'll throw someone into your team if you get chosen," the man told him. "Now let the next person come forth."

Flint turned around and saw a grumpy stout man standing there. The man glared at Flint, who moved aside to let the man through.

The small crowd got bigger and Flint began to get shoved aside. He watched as the man at the table checked off more and more people. He hoped to see Sam or Brent step up, but they never did.

_SQUAWK!_

Both Flint and Steve looked and saw a strange looking bird circle overhead. Squinting, Flint watched the bird look down at Flint and let out a loud hiss. Gasping, Flint watched the bird fly away. It had been a Ratbird.

"Ratbird! Ratbird!" Steve stood up on Flint's shoulder and crawled up onto the inventor's head. He settled in Flint's crazy hair and pointed at the Ratbird.

Flint just stood there with his mouth wide open, completely speechless. He didn't know that Ratbirds left ChewandSwallow. _They usually don't!_ Flint watched the Ratbird circle Time Square high up in the sky.

"TEAPOT! COME DOWN THIS INSTANT!" came a loud cry.

Flint watched a girl in a gray hoodie and light blue jeans race through the crowd. She had an old battered up messenger bag slung over her shoulder and black hiking boots on her feet. As she ran through the crowd, she held up her jeans as if they were slipping off.

She pushed past Flint and he watched her disappear through the crowd. She seemed a little strange to him and what puzzled Flint the most was if the Ratbird belonged to her.

"FLINT!"

Looking around, Flint tried to see who was calling him. He really hoped for it to be Sam, but he seriously doubted it. _There is a chance, though!_ He smiled a bit and stood on his tiptoes. He tried his best to locate a girl with orange-blond hair.

Unfortunately, it wasn't Sam. It was Brent.

The guy was pushing through the growing crowd, trying to reach Flint.

"Flint! Oh thank goodness I found you! C'mon we have to get to the stage!" Brent exclaimed and grabbed Flint by the wrist. He began to half lead, half drag Flint through the crowd.

"Uh, Brent? Do you still hate me for what happened?" Flint shouted at Brent.

"No time for that! I'll have time to hate you later! Right now we have to get to the stage! They'll be announcing the teams in a few minutes!" Brent hollered back and Flint didn't say anything.

Suddenly, Flint spotted the strange girl ahead. The Ratbird sat on her shoulder like a parrot. Brent shouted something at the girl and snatched her hand with his free hand when they passed her by.

Brent ran so fast that Flint's face kept hitting Brent's huge traveling backpack. He tried to look over to his left at the girl. She noticed him looking and grinned widely at him. With her free hand she waved at him.

Blinking, Flint waved back and his face smashed into Brent's backpack yet again.

"Brent! Slow down will ya!" Flint yelled. He didn't even think that Brent even heard him.

There was the ear-splitting sound of someone tap-testing a microphone ahead. The teams were to be announced any second. Hopefully the microphone would be loud enough for the whole crowd in Time Square to hear.

"Okay, we're here." Brent huffed and let go of Flint's wrist. He let go of the girl's hand and then hunched over to catch his breath.

"Flint…Uh… Meet…Etta…" Brent said between short breaths.

Flint turned around to glance at the girl with the Ratbird on her shoulder. She didn't wait for him to hold out his hand. She just took Flint's hand and warmly shook it with a smile.

"I'm Etta. I wish I could tell you more, but I don't really think this is the time." She continued shaking Flint's hand energetically.

"STEVE!" Steve then called out at Etta.

She looked up at the monkey in Flint's hair and her smile stretched to her ears. Flint crouched down a bit, so Etta could shake Steve's little paw. The monkey shook Etta's hand, while staring at the Ratbird on Etta's shoulder.

"STEVE!" Steve let go of her hand and pointed at the Ratbird.

"No, this is Teapot. Teapot say hello to Steve!" Etta laughed and turned her head to look over at Teapot.

The Ratbird cocked his head to the side and watched Steve with wide, curious eyes. He rustled his wings and let out something between a squawk and hiss. Steve answered with a small happy monkey shriek. Teapot made a loud clicking noise with his tongue and Steve copied him.

The two copied each other for at least a minute, until someone had cleared their throat into the microphone. The sound was so loud that a majority of the crowd turned their heads to see what was going on. Almost instantly a silence fell over the vast crowd in Time Square.

"Good morning to you all!" A tall man stood up on stage. He wore a white business suit with polished black shoes and narrow black sunglasses. It seemed strange for him to be wearing sunglasses, when there wasn't even any sun.

"I hope all of you are having a good morning. I know I am," the man smiled at the crowd. "Most of you in this crowd have come here for the World Microchip Races. Most of you have seen the posters or have had someone tell you about them. And of course most of you know that only six teams will be chosen. I've had one of my partners tell me that there are over fifty teams gathered here today."

Flint's stomach dropped nervously on the inside of him. _F-fifty teams?_ He gulped. Only six would be chosen out of those fifty. Now it didn't seem too likely that he and his team would be part of these WMRs.

"Now! All the members of the teams have been given numbers. We have the team numbers written down on pieces of paper and dropped into a box. The teams and their numbers will be drawn out. If a single member is chosen, we will throw them into a chosen team with two members." The man explained to the crowd.

Nervous and excited whispers floated through the crowd. All the teams in the crowd began to look around at other people's numbers.

Flint looked over at Brent and Etta. Brent's number was '52' and Etta's was '53'. Brent kept looking down at his number and then back up at the man on the stage. He looked really nervous. On the other hand, Etta looked relaxed. She was probably the only chill person in the whole crowd at that moment.

Another man with a box came to stand next to the man at the microphone. He too was wearing a white business suit and sunglasses. It seemed a little odd that the two had matching outfits.

The man by the microphone slipped his hand into a slot on the top of the box and drew out a piece of paper. Once the paper was out of the box, the crowd went deathly silent and everyone leaned in to hear in on the first team.

It turned out to be some team from the very back of the crowd. It was three guys with strong Australian accents. The three guys were shouting things out excitedly as they pushed their way through the crowd and onto the stage.

"The group of total awesomeness COMING THROUGH!" one of guys from the group yelled out. The crowd shifted around so they had a clear path to the stage.

On stage they received a brown package. The man with the microphone warned them not to open it until all the teams were chosen. The guys snatched the package and raced back into the applauding crowd.

"Next team! The team with the numbers 40, 41 and 42!" the man called out as he read out the piece of paper.

"THAT'S US!"

Flint's heart was drumming around in his chest. He spotted Sam, Patrick and Manny walking through the crowd. His eyes fell on Sam and he really wished he could call out to her.

Patrick had shouted out. He wasn't wearing his blue business suit, but instead had a black polo shirt, jeans and a huge Nikon camera hanging around his neck. He was dragging Sam behind him. Sam had been dragging poor Manny with his huge camera behind her.

The three came up on stage and Patrick took the package with his wide, sparkling white toothy smile flashing at the man. Sam didn't look too happy. She wrung her hand out of Patrick's and let go of Manny's.

Flint was about to call out to Sam, but Patrick had pushed her and Manny back into the crowd. Watching to see where she went, Flint told himself that he HAD to find Sam later.

Flint had missed the next set of numbers, but he knew it wasn't them when two young women and some older guy walked up on stage.

The next set of numbers had been three loud siblings. Two sisters and a brother. The three pushed each other as they hurried onto the stage. The brother took the brown package and the two sisters tried to take it from him. The siblings had to be forced off the stage by the police before they began to fight in front of everybody.

"Okay! We have two more teams left to announce!" the man by the microphone grinned and slipped his hand into the box.

He pulled out a sheet of paper and Flint bit his lip nervously. Even Steve whimpered from where he sat on top of Flint's head. Brent was biting his fingernails and Etta didn't look so relaxed anymore. She was rocking back and forth on the heels of her feet. Only Teapot seemed to be the calm one.

"Numbers 63, 52 and 101!" the man called out.

"OH MY GOSH! FLINT! IT'S US!" Brent shrieked with excitement like a little girl. He grabbed Flint's hand and pulled him through the crowd.

"Wait! Whose number 101? Etta's not on our team!" Flint cried and looked over his shoulder and poor Etta.

On stage the man handed Brent the package.

"Number 101 will meet you at your first destination," the man explained before Flint could ask the man about their third member.

"Thanks, sir! WE GOT INTO THE WMRs! FLINT, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?" Brent cheered loudly and danced off the stage. Flint smiled a bit and followed Brent. On the top of his head, Steve was making some kind of cheerful noise.

Before he left the stage, Flint scanned the crowd for Sam. Sadly, he didn't see her anywhere. Sighing, he followed Brent back to Etta and Teapot.

"Brent? I thought I was on your team!" Etta pouted and Brent stopped dancing around. He gasped and blinked down at Etta.

"I thought so too…" Brent looked at her and she looked down at her hiking boots.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The last and final team! This team was put together last minute and is only a team of two. I present to you numbers 11 and 53!"

Etta looked up, "That's me! BRENT! THAT'S ME! AHHH! I MADE IT! I HAVE A TEAM! BRENT! FLINT! AHHHH!"

"Etta, go on stage!" Brent laughed and Etta didn't waste any time.

She hurried through the crowd and onto the stage.

Number 11 turned out to be some girl with short hair and an icy, sharp look in her electric blue eyes. She blew out a big bubble bum bubble and popped it loudly. The girl took the package and glanced over at Etta.

"So who are you supposed to be? I'm Laeka Alexandrovna Vovkeena." The girl looked at Etta, as they both made their way off the stage.

"I'm Etta," Etta replied quietly.

This time Etta didn't say her usual long introduction. She just kept quiet. She still didn't know Laeka too well. In fact she didn't anything about her except for her name.

Laeka smiled and nodded her head in a hello.

On Etta's shoulder, Teapot squawked loudly at the sight of Laeka. He didn't like it when he wasn't getting any attention. Plus he really liked Laeka's blue hair. Ratbirds were attracted to bright hair.

"What is that thing?" Laeka looked up at Teapot with a horrified expression.

"My pet Ratbird named Teapot." Etta answered.

She reached up and patted him on the head. He let out a satisfied rumbling purr. Meanwhile, Laeka watched him and couldn't seem to get her eyes off him.

"A Ratbird? What the heck is that supposed to be? I've never heard of it." Laeka watched Teapot. Teapot raised his head up high, when he realized Laeka was paying attention to him.

"It's a species that lives in ChewandSwallow." Etta explained and nervously fumbled with her messenger bag strap.

They reached Flint and Brent and Laeka looked over at Flint and Brent. Her eyes washed their chill over Flint and then over Brent. She crossed her arms and waited for them to say something. Flint and Brent only paid attention to her short, blue highlighted hair.

"Uh, Helloooo! Earth to dude with the lab coat and his friend! I'm Laeka." She said in a sharp tone that got Flint and Brent looking away from her hair.

"Oh uh, hi! I'm Brent McHale the more awesome one! Don't mind the dude with the lab coat." Brent flashed his TV grin at Laeka and held out his hand for her to shake.

Not even smiling back, Laeka slowly took his hand and shook it gingerly. She glanced at Flint and raised an thin, perfect eyebrow. He cleared his throat nervously.

"I'm Flint Lockwood. The dude with the lab coat and pet monkey." Flint chuckled and her eyes widened.

Behind her, Etta froze. Her mouth sprang open and she stumbled over to stand next to Laeka.

Both girls turned their full attention at Flint. Their expressions were identical: alarmed, wide eyes, dropped jaws and pale faces. Laeka even ran her hands to her hair and clenched her hair into fists.

"THE Flint Lockwood?" Laeka gasped and looked ready to rip out fistfuls of hair.

"The one who started the Great Food Incident?" Etta demanded with her whole face shining with excitement. Etta had never heard Flint's last name yet, so she was ready to freak out now that she heard it.

Flint blushed and Brent just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I am." Flint looked down at his Spray-On Shoes.

"Oh my God you are AWESOME! I mean you almost destroyed the whole world! And you drowned my mother's co-worker in mustard! Ha! The bastard! He deserved it! And the food! You're a genius! I'm your number 1 fan!" Laeka squealed and her cold mood changed completely.

No one could really understand Etta because she was talking so fast. But Flint did catch some similar phrases to Laeka's. He couldn't actually believe that he had his own fangirls.

"Watch out. I heard fangirls can be dangerous," Brent leaned in and hissed in Flint's ear as if reading his mind.

Flint just laughed nervously and watched Laeka and Etta suddenly began to talk about the Great Food Incident.

Laeka's story was something about her getting a nose piercing that day until a huge doughnut had smashed through the clinic's window. She had finished up and then had run out into the street.

Instead of running away and screaming insanely like everyone else, she was cheering loudly and dancing on the sidewalk. Her story ended how she and two homeless guys began to bet whether the world would end that day or the next.

Etta's story was how at first she had been hiding in an alley along with Teapot, until Officer Earl had found her. He had grabbed her arm and dragged her after him.

They had ended up at the Elementary School, where the townsfolk were making sandwich boats to escape off the island. Everyone was calling to one another for more bread, more peanut butter and more strawberry jam.

Earl had placed Etta on the peanut butter crew and she had to use her hands to smear the sticky mess all over the oversized pieces of bread. After one piece of bread, her arms were covered in peanut butter and she had plenty of smears on her clothes.

"Ya know what? I think this might be a good time to call Sam," Brent told Flint.

Flint gasped. "Call her! Geez, why haven't I thought of that when we got here?"

Brent smirked and shook his head.

Flint fished out his cell from his deep pant pocket and opened it up. The 'Low Battery' icon blinked back at him. Groaning, he shoved the phone back into his pocket and Brent held out his. Thanking him under his breath, Flint took the phone and flipped it open.

The same 'Low Battery' icon flashed at him.

"Brent. I thought you charged your phone." Flint glared at him and slapped the phone into Brent's open palm.

"I thought you did too! Forgetful now, aren't we?" Brent gave him a teasing glare.

Etta popped into scene and pushed the two apart, before a fight could heat up.

"Do you guys seriously fight over such stupid things?" Etta looked at each of them.

The sound of a microphone screeching stopped everyone from saying anything else. Hands flew up to ears and a loud apology came from the man at the microphone. He tapped the microphone again and this time it wasn't so loud.

Clearing his throat rather loudly, the man adjusted his sunglasses and began to speak about the packages.

"Each team has received a brown package. The package will contain many things that you'll need during the WMRs. We have said that all trips are paid for and that it sort of true. In the package you will find 11 plane tickets stamped with the words 'World Microchip Races' stamped on them. Show those before boarding any plane and they'll let you on. 10 of the tickets are for the ten destinations and the 11th one will be for coming back here. Your WMRs IDs are in there too along with a few more things like rules and regulations, your first destination and few more things." The man explained to the crowd.

Teams began to rip apart the brown wrapping paper on the packages and then peek into the white boxes. Brent gripped his teams and waited till the man finished speaking.

Laeka and Etta tore their wrapping away and opened the box. Both clonked heads as they both tried to look inside.

"The official World Microchip Races begin at noon. I want all teams to meet right here at 11:59. You have a little more than an hour. No later or you'll be disqualified! I must also say that I don't want any extra teams trying to sneak into the WMRs. No extra followers or spies! I'll see the real six teams later!" the man walked off the stage and Flint watched him slip off his sunglasses.

Once the man left off the stage, the huge crowd of people began to slowly disappear with only a few extras standing here and there. The teams began to talk amongst each other.

The man in the white business suit had left the stage and that was when Flint had remembered about calling Sam. He had to remember to charge his phone once they got to their first destination. Wherever the heck that was supposed to be.

"Laeka, do you have a phone I could b—" Flint started to ask the girl as he turned to her and Etta.

Laeka narrowed her eyes at Flint, as if she didn't really trust him. She had only known him for a few minutes, so she was a bit conscious about her phone. Her blue eyes eyed Flint, but when she saw him puppy-dog eyes, she sighed. Slowly, she began to pull out her phone from her jacket pocket, but stopped when she heard someone call Flint.

"FLINT!" came a loud happy scream that almost echoed all around Time Square.

Now that most of the crowd had gone, Flint knew it would be easier to see who was calling him. He stood up high and raised his head over the few team members in Time Square as well as the leftover crowd people. His blue eyes searched and scanned the area. He _knew_ who had called out to him, he just wasn't sure if it was true.

It was. A huge grin spread on Flint's face and millions and millions of butterflies woke up inside his stomach when he saw her face. They all beat their wings against his stomach and wished to get out.

Sam Sparks was racing across half-empty Time Square with her usual reporter smile and her wide glittering green eyes. _Oh how I love those eyes of hers._ Flint sighed and watched her dodge the Australian guys, who tried to ask Sam where she was running.

What Flint had noticed was how her hair was out of its ponytail and she wasn't wearing her glasses. _It must be Patrick who's not letting her wear them._ He frowned. Before his eyes fell on Sam once again, he took a quick glance around for Patrick. Or Manny. Neither were anywhere in sight.

Sam didn't even wait to stop in front of Flint. She practically bowled him over with her bear hug. He stumbled back, but secured himself by hugging her back just as tightly.

"I've missed you so much." she said to him as she buried her face into his shoulder and took in the smell of his lab coat.

"I've missed you more." Flint whispered. He kissed the top of Sam's head and she looked up at him after he did.

The two just looked into each others eyes waiting for the right moment. Flint felt nervous, even if he had kissed Sam before. Looking down at her like that made him even more nervous. Sam was blushing.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" Etta was hissing in the background. She would have kept chanting, if Brent hadn't slapped his hand over her mouth.

"Mmmph! Mmmph! Mmmph!" Etta tried to cry out.

Flint smiled slyly at Sam and she blushed harder. Then in one sudden movement he leaned in and brought his lips down on top of hers. She smiled through the kiss and pushed the kiss deeper as she grabbed his shirt.

"Ugh, lovebirds," Laeka said, looking away awkwardly.

"There's nothing you gonna do about them." Brent smiled and looked down at Etta, who was fighting to get Brent's hand off her mouth.

Etta managed to shove his hand away after struggling for quite some time. She gave him her 'death' glare and he just smirked.

"Maybe instead of standing here covering Etta's mouth, you could have checked your package where the first destination was. And maybe could've read the rules and all that. I already checked my package," Laeka frowned up at Brent, "Etta c'mere."

Etta stuck her tongue out at Brent, before she walked over to Laeka's side and read the rules and destination papers over Laeka's shoulder. A small gasp ended up coming from Etta and she snatched one of the papers from Laeka's hands. Laeka gulped and began to silently read the next paper to herself.

Curiosity grew upon Brent and he began to tear open his and Flint's package.

"Hey, lover boy! Get a room later and finish your business with Sam there. Right now we have to read over these stupid papers! Come here!" Brent called at Flint, who was still making out with Sam.

Flint broke away from Sam and looked up at Brent. His cheeks turned red and he nodded. After kissing Sam briefly on the cheek, Flint sauntered over to Brent. Just when he came over, the package was ripped open.

Brent dug his hand in and pulled out a cream-colored sheet of paper. Flint read it out loud.

"Destination #1: Washington D.C, USA. Read rules and regulations on how to acquire microchips and envelopes with riddles." Flint read.

As if on cue, Brent pulled out a sheet marked _Rules and Regulations of the World Microchip Races._


End file.
